Caitriona
Something Wicked
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/w...&en=661ad5ef4aa83bb0&ei=5094&partner=homepage
July 16, 2006
Israeli Bombs Fall Near Syria as Ripples Grow
By GREG MYRE
METULA, Israel, July 15 — In wide-ranging airstrikes, Israel continued to hit Beirut and other targets in Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least a dozen people in a civilian refugee convoy in the south. And Hezbollah forces continued their rocket barrage into northern Israel, striking the resort city of Tiberias for the first time.
Ripples from the widening conflict stirred a meeting of world leaders near St. Petersburg, Russia, where President Bush called on Syria to use its influence with Hezbollah to end the fighting.
The Israeli Air Force bombed bridges and access roads near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, the Israeli military said. The attack was seen as a further warning to Syria, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas, though no Syrian sites were hit, the military said.
In another development, an Israeli military official claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved on some level in a missile strike that badly damaged an Israeli missile ship off Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday, killing one Israeli sailor. Three others are missing.
The official said the exact role of the Revolutionary Guards was not clear. Dozens of the Iranian fighters have been known to be in Lebanon, working with Hezbollah, for more than two decades, and Iran provides a large part of the group’s financing.
Israel’s military initially said the ship was hit by an unpiloted drone aircraft packed with explosives. But the military revised its assessment on Saturday, saying the ship was hit by a radar-guided, C802 missile supplied by Iran that was fired from the Lebanese shore. The ship, which was part of a naval blockade of Lebanon, returned home on Saturday, the military said.
Meanwhile, many residents on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been fleeing the frontier to avoid the heavy shooting. The fighting there erupted on Wednesday with a Hezbollah attack that led to the capture of two Israeli soldiers. A total of eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.
Hezbollah unleashed more than 40 Katyusha rockets deep into northern Israel on Saturday, striking the resort town of Tiberias for the first time.
Several buildings were hit and damaged, though there were no serious injuries, Israeli officials said. Sunbathers scrambled for cover after the attacks, and the town, which had been full of activity, quickly fell quiet and the streets became deserted.
The Israeli bombing broke a temporary lull in Beirut, as warplanes again attacked targets in the capital’s southern suburbs.
Explosions rocked the skyline as warplanes targeted a building attached to Hezbollah’s headquarters, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood. The complex had already been mostly destroyed in a bombing Friday night, and Hezbollah confirmed that the strikes on Saturday finished the destruction, though no one was inside.
Israeli warplanes pounded roads in the south, destroying bridges and arteries, dividing large parts of the country from each other.
The Lebanese refugee convoy that was attacked was fleeing the border village of Marwaheen when it was struck, and at least 12 people, including women and children, were killed when two cars were hit, according to The Associated Press. The Israeli military said it was checking on the report and had no immediate comment.
Warplanes also bombed roads in the north and east of the country, cutting off some of the last remaining roads leading out of Lebanon. Three civilians were reported killed in another Israeli strike on the main highway linking Lebanon to Syria.
Over all, more than 80 Lebanese have been killed, most of them civilians, and more than 200 wounded, in the past four days, according to Lebanese officials. Hezbollah rockets have killed four Israeli civilians and wounded more than 150 since the barrage began on Wednesday.
Despite talks at the United Nations, the Group of 8 leaders meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, and an emergency session of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, there were no signs of a diplomatic progress. The crisis has raised concerns that the turmoil could further destabilize the region.
President Bush took his toughest line yet with Syria and Hezbollah during a joint appearance with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in a suburb outside St. Petersburg, where they were preparing for the Group of 8 summit meeting. In a break from his past statements, he did not call upon Israel to show restraint.
“In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place,†Mr. Bush said. “And that’s because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel, and because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. That’s why we have violence.â€
Singling out Syria for its support of Hezbollah, he called upon its leadership to intercede to stop the violence. “The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms, and to stop attacking,†Mr. Bush said. “And, therefore, I call upon Syria to exert influence over Hezbollah.â€
Later, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, elaborated by saying that it now fell to both Syria and Iran to step in and persuade Hezbollah to stand down. “These two countries bear some responsibility for what happened, and they also bear some responsibility for turning it around,†Mr. Hadley said.
Israeli leaders have warned that the battle could be a long one, and say that Israel will not accept a return to the conditions that existed before the fighting broke out, with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese Army controlling Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
“We can’t go back to the status quo,†said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “That would mean that Hezbollah still has its finger on the trigger and can start a regional crisis whenever that serves its interest.â€
Israel’s military goal is to push Hezbollah away from the border so it cannot strike at Israel, Mr. Regev said. The political goal, he said, is to carry out a United Nations Security Council resolution, passed two years ago, that calls for the Lebanese government to take control of its southern border and disarm militias, like Hezbollah.
Italy began evacuating its citizens from Lebanon on Saturday while the United States and France prepared to do the same as Israeli planes pounded the country, Reuters reported.
About 410 people left Beirut in an Italian convoy early on Saturday, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said. The group was mostly made up of Italians and other Europeans, who were expected to arrive in the Syrian port city of Latakia in the coming hours.
The United States State Department said it was working with the Defense Department on a plan to transport Americans to Cyprus, from where it recommended they return to the United States by commercial airlines. The State Department estimates that about 25,000 American citizens, including people with dual citizenship, live in Lebanon, although summer visits could expand that number.
The Lebanese government has demanded an end to the Israeli air, naval and artillery strikes on Lebanon. The government has also disavowed the cross-border raid by Hezbollah that ignited the fighting. But the Lebanese leadership has said and done little as the crisis has expanded, and the government has not given any indication that it will act against Hezbollah, even as it continued its strikes into northern Israel.
Most northern Israeli cities are now ghost towns, with residents having fled south, taken refuge in bomb shelters or simply remaining inside their homes.
Israeli security officials have said for some time that Hezbollah had longer-range rockets, but the recent attacks have still alarmed many Israelis.
Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, is about 20 miles south of the Lebanese border, and no Hezbollah rockets had landed near the town. However, Hezbollah demonstrated its increased range when on Thursday it struck the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, which is also around 20 miles from the border. Hezbollah has denied that it targeted Haifa.
Several Katyusha rockets scored direct hits on empty buildings on Saturday. In Hatzor Haglilit, a small hillside community surrounded by pine trees, a rocket crashed through the red-tile roof of a home and damaged the living home, but the residents had gone to Tel Aviv, neighbors said.
Before this week, the last time the community was shelled was in the 1960’s by Syrian forces in the Golan Heights, several miles to the east, according to the mayor, Shaul Kamisa. Israel captured the heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
But more than 20 rockets have hit in and around the community in the past four days.
“We never dreamed the terror would arrive here,†Mr. Kamisa said as he inspected the damaged home.
One Israeli man, Rafi Cohen, traveled north to show solidarity with people in the coastal town of Nahariya, which has been hit hard. But when he showed up at the beach, which is usually crowded on Saturdays during the summer, he found himself alone, and a bit surprised.
“We should show Hezbollah how strong we are and live our lives as normal,†Mr. Cohen told Israel radio.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force bombed Gaza City, hitting the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and a factory suspected of making rockets.
Palestinians said one man was killed and about a dozen wounded in the attack on the factory, which was in a residential area of Gaza City, Palestinians said. Hamas militants quickly took control of the bomb site, where there was a deep crater.
Palestinian militants also fired rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, but they did not cause damage or injuries.
July 16, 2006
Israeli Bombs Fall Near Syria as Ripples Grow
By GREG MYRE
METULA, Israel, July 15 — In wide-ranging airstrikes, Israel continued to hit Beirut and other targets in Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least a dozen people in a civilian refugee convoy in the south. And Hezbollah forces continued their rocket barrage into northern Israel, striking the resort city of Tiberias for the first time.
Ripples from the widening conflict stirred a meeting of world leaders near St. Petersburg, Russia, where President Bush called on Syria to use its influence with Hezbollah to end the fighting.
The Israeli Air Force bombed bridges and access roads near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, the Israeli military said. The attack was seen as a further warning to Syria, which supports both Hezbollah and Hamas, though no Syrian sites were hit, the military said.
In another development, an Israeli military official claimed that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were involved on some level in a missile strike that badly damaged an Israeli missile ship off Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Friday, killing one Israeli sailor. Three others are missing.
The official said the exact role of the Revolutionary Guards was not clear. Dozens of the Iranian fighters have been known to be in Lebanon, working with Hezbollah, for more than two decades, and Iran provides a large part of the group’s financing.
Israel’s military initially said the ship was hit by an unpiloted drone aircraft packed with explosives. But the military revised its assessment on Saturday, saying the ship was hit by a radar-guided, C802 missile supplied by Iran that was fired from the Lebanese shore. The ship, which was part of a naval blockade of Lebanon, returned home on Saturday, the military said.
Meanwhile, many residents on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border have been fleeing the frontier to avoid the heavy shooting. The fighting there erupted on Wednesday with a Hezbollah attack that led to the capture of two Israeli soldiers. A total of eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting.
Hezbollah unleashed more than 40 Katyusha rockets deep into northern Israel on Saturday, striking the resort town of Tiberias for the first time.
Several buildings were hit and damaged, though there were no serious injuries, Israeli officials said. Sunbathers scrambled for cover after the attacks, and the town, which had been full of activity, quickly fell quiet and the streets became deserted.
The Israeli bombing broke a temporary lull in Beirut, as warplanes again attacked targets in the capital’s southern suburbs.
Explosions rocked the skyline as warplanes targeted a building attached to Hezbollah’s headquarters, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood. The complex had already been mostly destroyed in a bombing Friday night, and Hezbollah confirmed that the strikes on Saturday finished the destruction, though no one was inside.
Israeli warplanes pounded roads in the south, destroying bridges and arteries, dividing large parts of the country from each other.
The Lebanese refugee convoy that was attacked was fleeing the border village of Marwaheen when it was struck, and at least 12 people, including women and children, were killed when two cars were hit, according to The Associated Press. The Israeli military said it was checking on the report and had no immediate comment.
Warplanes also bombed roads in the north and east of the country, cutting off some of the last remaining roads leading out of Lebanon. Three civilians were reported killed in another Israeli strike on the main highway linking Lebanon to Syria.
Over all, more than 80 Lebanese have been killed, most of them civilians, and more than 200 wounded, in the past four days, according to Lebanese officials. Hezbollah rockets have killed four Israeli civilians and wounded more than 150 since the barrage began on Wednesday.
Despite talks at the United Nations, the Group of 8 leaders meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, and an emergency session of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, there were no signs of a diplomatic progress. The crisis has raised concerns that the turmoil could further destabilize the region.
President Bush took his toughest line yet with Syria and Hezbollah during a joint appearance with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in a suburb outside St. Petersburg, where they were preparing for the Group of 8 summit meeting. In a break from his past statements, he did not call upon Israel to show restraint.
“In my judgment, the best way to stop the violence is to understand why the violence occurred in the first place,†Mr. Bush said. “And that’s because Hezbollah has been launching rocket attacks out of Lebanon into Israel, and because Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. That’s why we have violence.â€
Singling out Syria for its support of Hezbollah, he called upon its leadership to intercede to stop the violence. “The best way to stop the violence is for Hezbollah to lay down its arms, and to stop attacking,†Mr. Bush said. “And, therefore, I call upon Syria to exert influence over Hezbollah.â€
Later, Stephen J. Hadley, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, elaborated by saying that it now fell to both Syria and Iran to step in and persuade Hezbollah to stand down. “These two countries bear some responsibility for what happened, and they also bear some responsibility for turning it around,†Mr. Hadley said.
Israeli leaders have warned that the battle could be a long one, and say that Israel will not accept a return to the conditions that existed before the fighting broke out, with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese Army controlling Lebanon’s southern border with Israel.
“We can’t go back to the status quo,†said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry. “That would mean that Hezbollah still has its finger on the trigger and can start a regional crisis whenever that serves its interest.â€
Israel’s military goal is to push Hezbollah away from the border so it cannot strike at Israel, Mr. Regev said. The political goal, he said, is to carry out a United Nations Security Council resolution, passed two years ago, that calls for the Lebanese government to take control of its southern border and disarm militias, like Hezbollah.
Italy began evacuating its citizens from Lebanon on Saturday while the United States and France prepared to do the same as Israeli planes pounded the country, Reuters reported.
About 410 people left Beirut in an Italian convoy early on Saturday, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said. The group was mostly made up of Italians and other Europeans, who were expected to arrive in the Syrian port city of Latakia in the coming hours.
The United States State Department said it was working with the Defense Department on a plan to transport Americans to Cyprus, from where it recommended they return to the United States by commercial airlines. The State Department estimates that about 25,000 American citizens, including people with dual citizenship, live in Lebanon, although summer visits could expand that number.
The Lebanese government has demanded an end to the Israeli air, naval and artillery strikes on Lebanon. The government has also disavowed the cross-border raid by Hezbollah that ignited the fighting. But the Lebanese leadership has said and done little as the crisis has expanded, and the government has not given any indication that it will act against Hezbollah, even as it continued its strikes into northern Israel.
Most northern Israeli cities are now ghost towns, with residents having fled south, taken refuge in bomb shelters or simply remaining inside their homes.
Israeli security officials have said for some time that Hezbollah had longer-range rockets, but the recent attacks have still alarmed many Israelis.
Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, is about 20 miles south of the Lebanese border, and no Hezbollah rockets had landed near the town. However, Hezbollah demonstrated its increased range when on Thursday it struck the Mediterranean port city of Haifa, which is also around 20 miles from the border. Hezbollah has denied that it targeted Haifa.
Several Katyusha rockets scored direct hits on empty buildings on Saturday. In Hatzor Haglilit, a small hillside community surrounded by pine trees, a rocket crashed through the red-tile roof of a home and damaged the living home, but the residents had gone to Tel Aviv, neighbors said.
Before this week, the last time the community was shelled was in the 1960’s by Syrian forces in the Golan Heights, several miles to the east, according to the mayor, Shaul Kamisa. Israel captured the heights from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
But more than 20 rockets have hit in and around the community in the past four days.
“We never dreamed the terror would arrive here,†Mr. Kamisa said as he inspected the damaged home.
One Israeli man, Rafi Cohen, traveled north to show solidarity with people in the coastal town of Nahariya, which has been hit hard. But when he showed up at the beach, which is usually crowded on Saturdays during the summer, he found himself alone, and a bit surprised.
“We should show Hezbollah how strong we are and live our lives as normal,†Mr. Cohen told Israel radio.
In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force bombed Gaza City, hitting the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy and a factory suspected of making rockets.
Palestinians said one man was killed and about a dozen wounded in the attack on the factory, which was in a residential area of Gaza City, Palestinians said. Hamas militants quickly took control of the bomb site, where there was a deep crater.
Palestinian militants also fired rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, but they did not cause damage or injuries.
